What is Reddit's opinion of The Titanic: Lost and Found (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4)?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Was it a ‘learning to read’ type book? Maybe Titanic: Lost and Found ?

For me, it was this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Titanic-Lost-Found-Step-Into-Reading-Step/dp/0394886690

OK long rant incoming.

Ever as a child, long before the Cameron movie even, I was obsessed with the Titanic. Like I'm sure a few of you, it all started with this book. My parents gave it to me just for learning to read, but then I jumped to Walter Lord, watched A Night to Remember, scoured passenger lists and deck plans, my mind exploded when I found the website that was matching first class passengers in cabins on an illustrated deck plan, etc. And then Cameron just cemented it.

When I read the hardcover Walter Lord, there were just four photos of first class cabins (Old Dutch, Modern Dutch, and the two that the Baxters had). As a kid I remember being sad knowing that there were so many more staterooms I'd never know what they looked like, and how much of the ship I'd never get to see.

And then I learned about Titanic H&G several years ago and my mind was fucking blown. This was it. This is what I dreamed about ever since I was a kid. The ability to walk through the entire thing. First class, third class, parlour suites, engine rooms, even down to the mail room, the barber shop, the crew cabins. Stuff that has never ever seen the light of day. And what's more? These guys were actually capable of it! Not even capable, excellent at it!

But I quickly became disillusioned at the ever expanding nature of the project. They kept adding and adding and adding and adding stuff to it. Not just the murder mystery which already sounded like something nobody really needed, but walking through Southampton. NPCs that all have individual storylines. Now a Lusitania game. And the insistence and doubling down on the fact that this would never be released unless 100% of their vision could be accomplished.

The Britannic demo even made me ANGRIER. Because yes, there are flaws with it. There are limitations. But that shows they CAN create a simulation of the sinking Titanic that you could experience, and we know for a fact that they can 100% accomplish the full interiors of the ship. That's all that people want. In a perfect world, these things would be interchangeable (meaning you could experience the sinking from any room) but honestly I think 99.8% of us would be satisfied if you could explore the whole ship, and experience the sinking from a limited space.

But this is never, ever, ever, ever going to happen.

I think it is clear to me that there is too much pride here. The group (and I feel like this stems from Tom) has mentally spent their millions in their heads that will inevitably come when they release their ground-breaking AAA game. That they are not capable of creating and that nobody has or will invest in. But I'm sure mentally they have bought mansions and vacations and cars and planes and have also mentally told us off, told their family off, etc and gotten "revenge" on all the people who said it could never happen. And at this point releasing what they can do (which is all any of us want anyway!) would mean the death of those dreams, and I am resigned to the fact that they would rather let this thing die than release something and give up these quixotic visions.

They can make good money by releasing the above (walk through and sinking simulation). It is not going to be millions and millions of dollars. But they will get paid for their work, we'll all buy it, it WILL generate internet buzz in this clickbait era because it's impressive accomplishment. It will bring happiness to many many people.

But I have resigned myself to the fact that it won't happen. There is clearly too much pride, too much defensive posturing, by the group to let that happen. They will abandon it out of frustration, or turn on each other, or just cancel it out of spite. I am amazed they are still working on it now TBH and still talking to each other and that the inevitable finger pointing and blow out, project ending arguments (WHICH ARE INEVITABLE IF THEY DON'T DRAMATICALLY REDUCE THE SCALE) have not happened yet.

They can do exactly what the fanbase wants, they can do exactly what can get them paid, they can do exactly what would honestly generate major buzz on the internet if a fully explorable and sinking Titanic was released. But they are focused on what nobody wants and needs, that they can't accomplish, because they are under the delusion that it will make them super super rich.

I just fucking can't with this dumb project. Never have I ever seen so much talent utterly squandered. It's like Monet refusing to release his fully painted lily paintings because he thinks they aren't good enough and he wants to make an animated movie from them but doesn't know how.

If you guys are reading this, you have the talent. It's mind blowing talent. Do not squander sharing this talent with the world and perfecting what you can do, rather than hold out for something you can't. Make the ship explorable, have a sinking mode with as much of the ship accessible as you can. Price it at $50 and if you can move 40,000 copies (the amount that are fans on Facebook), the principals can split $2M and essentially open doors to get jobs anywhere you want because of the impressive quality of the work. Hire a mildly competent PR person and they can pitch it to every clickbait site in the world and they will all run it because it IS impressive. Hell, you could probably even get a quick blurb on some local news stations, maybe even a quick mention on a cable news network. Sell another 60K. Another $3M to split. $5M total. The principals (there are how many, three?) can walk away with six-figure checks (and not even low-six-figure checks) even after taxes and paying people. Let's say $750K each. More money than most will ever make in their lives. Invest $500K in a fund with 7% annual return (easy) and you will have almost $2M to retire on before you are 50 (these guys are about 30, no?). And that could be $3.8M to retire on if you wait until 60. Put another $150K on a down payment for a super sexy condo in a fun city, or a really nice house in a place like Austin or Denver or Seattle or Miami (or anywhere that isn't SF or LA or NYC, really) and leverage your success to get a good paying job in a related field with your crazy amazing accomplishment, and that job will more than cover the rest of the mortgage and a nice lifestyle. And you still then have $100K, buy yourself a Porsche and a vacation to a five-star resort. You've earned it. And then you'll have an amazing salary at a top tier gaming or special effects company to live off of while your interest accrues. You are more than capable of this. But it's not going to be a AAA game that 29M people buy like Red Dead Redemption. This isn't a failure. This is going to be a wildly successful thing IN ITS NICHE and IN ITS LIMITATIONS. Don't throw away your money and success that you can accomplish for money/success that only exists in a fantasy land.

When I was that age I absolutely loved the Step-Into-Reading books.

The three that my family had were:

Titanic: Lost and Found

Pompeii: Buried Alive

Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found

Assuming they are still accurate, which I believe they are, they should be exactly what you are looking for.